03 September 2010

In last Thursday's tablescape post, I promised to do another setting with close-ups of the various pieces I had used for this photo:

I am still unpacking china, etc., but I thought that I'd give you a little teaser, this week, on the Herend pattern that got so many comments last week - Rothschild Bird.

This Hungarian hand painted china pattern is very old (from the mid-1800's), and was originally designed for the Rothschild banking family, in France. The pattern actually has twelve different depictions of two birds each, sitting in trees or standing next to the branches. Every pair of birds has a gold link necklace draped over and through the tree branches, as well. The story is that one of the Rothschild daughters had been given a gold necklace (either as an engagement gift from her fiance, or by her father). She had lost the necklace in the garden and couldn't find it. Several days later, the Rothschilds' gardener found the necklace hanging in a tree branch. It had apparently been transported there by a couple of birds!

Since I wasn't able to get a table setting done for this week, I thought readers might enjoy seeing the twelve different motifs that make up this exquisite pattern. Most of these are dinner plates, but some are salads, hence the variation in scale.

Enjoy looking at these pictures, and next week, I'll have the promised full table setting, including lots of serving pieces in this gorgeous pattern!